Tim Storrier (b.1949, Sydney) is an award-winning artist based in Bowral, New South Wales. Storrier’s career spans fifty years, beginning at the age of nineteen when he was awarded the 1968 Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It precipitated the career of the young artist into the mystery of the art world and a life devoted to painting. Storrier is now one of Australia most accomplished living artists. His recognisable depictions of the Australian landscape, complete with their recurring motifs of burning logs and floating fragments of scorched paper amongst others, are constructed with a deep understanding of the subjects and executed with the utmost technical dexterity.
Born in 1949, Storrier and family moved from Sydney to family property, ‘Umagarlee’, near Wellington in rural New South Wales in 1953. Between 1959-66 he attended Sydney Church of England Grammar School and began formal art studies under tutelage of Ross Doig. In 1967 Storrier enrolled at National Art School in Sydney and commenced graphic design studies before his surprise Sulman Prize win for Suzy 350 in 1968. Storrier abandoned his studies in 1969 to take up a position as a graphic artist in the television sector of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
In 1972 Storrier toured the United States, Europe and the Middle East. The following year he ventured on a study tour of central Australia with particular concentration on Uluru. Storrier went several times to paint in central and outback Australia throughout the 1970s. In 1983 he held his first solo exhibition in London, from which three works were purchased by MOMA, New York. In 1984, when he won the Sulman again, he visited Egypt on commission from the West Australian businessman Sir Garrick Agnew; the resulting exhibition, Tickets to Egypt was held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney before touring to the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth.
Storrier has since been represented in many prestigious exhibitions, including the Australian Bicentennial Exhibition, Fischer Fine Art, London (1988); Windows on Australia 1, Australian Embassy, Tokyo (1995); The Australian Experience, Galerie Konoha, Tokyo (1996); and The Rose Crossing touring exhibition (1999-2000), Tim Storrier Drawings 1971-2003 (2003) and Dust and Ashes (2003) were held at Sherman Galleries, Sydney.
A number of publications have been produced on the artist including Point to Point: The Art of Tim Storrier by Linda Van Nunen (1987); Tim Storrier: The Art of the Outsider by Catharine Lumby (2000); Lines of Fire: Works on Paper by Tim Storrier by Ashley Crawford (2003); Tim Storrier – Moments, forward by Edmund Capon (2009); Elemental Reckoning: and The Art of Tim Storrier 1981-2011 by Gavin Wilson (2011).
In 1989, Storrier was appointed a Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales where he served three terms. In 1994, he was awarded the Order of Australia (AM) for his services to art and in May 2003, he received a Doctor of Arts (Hons) from Charles Sturt University, New South Wales.
Storrier has been collected by all major Australian art museums and is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
